A GP’s receptionist has been awarded £45,000 after winning a discrimination claim because she was not allowed to work from home during the Covid-19 Pandemic.
The Claimant, Tracy Keown, suffered from microvascular angina which is classed as a disability under the Equality Act 2010. She had worked at Staines Road Surgery since 2019 and, due to her medical condition, was considered to be in the high-risk category during the Pandemic.
Despite being aware of Ms Keown’s disability, the GP practice failed to make reasonable adjustments to facilitate her needs and refused to provide her with homeworking equipment because the practice manager did not think it was ‘practical’ for her to work from home.
The Employment Tribunal found that her employer had put Ms Keown at a ‘substantial disadvantage’ in comparison with persons who are not disabled and she won her claims for disability discrimination, health and safety detriments and failure to make reasonable adjustments.
The Covid-19 Pandemic has substantially increased the demand for home-working. There is currently no absolute right for employees to work from home, but any employee who has been employed for 26 weeks may submit a flexible working request.
The government is proposing to make flexible working the default, allowing employees to request flexible working from day one of employment and removing the requirement for employees to set out what effect their request may have on the business and suggestions for how this may be dealt with.
When a flexible working request is received, employers should carry out a proper investigation into the request, consider whether the employee has a disability and what adjustments are required, and how the proposed change will affect the business, the employee making the request and the rest of the workforce.
If you need any advice or assistance with flexible and home-working requests, please get in touch with a member of the Employment Team on 0345 646 0406 or fill in our online enquiry form and a member of our Team will be in touch.